As a busy person I'm considering the idea of some sort of meal replacement shake. It'd be nice to have a meal already planned out that is filling, nutritious and requires little effort. I'd love something with a decent amount of protein because I struggle to get enough of that everyday. I've made lots of smoothies with Greek yogurt as my protein source, but I need more variety. Shakeology is advertised all over my Facebook and seems like a good option, but it's costly for me even when considering price per serving. Do any of you have suggestions on another brand or experience with trying shakes?

I got the powder mix about 2 years ago and it also tastes like dirt, but Hershey's chocolate syrup or strawberry syrup makes that bitterness go away and makes it taste super good! I actually like the normal drink flavor but that's because it tastes like a drink from my mission (which also tasted like dirt, but desperation does weird things to you). Since then, they have created a bottled version and added 2 flavors: Cacao and Nectar. I'm assuming those names are code words for Chocolate and Strawberry which makes me feel good since I already added those flavors anyway.

You can add Soylent to smoothies if you want but I only ever mixed it in their custom-made pitcher that seals so you can just shake the pitcher until it's mixed. The problem with that is that the drink only lasts about 36 hours after it's made before it spoils. The bottled version has a 1-year shelf life so they are probably better for storage unless you know you are going to drink Soylent for the next 3 meals or something like that. Then again, I always put the whole bag in the pitcher because I didn't have the scoop yet. So I guess the higher price for the bottled version is for convenience and the cost of the bottle.

From what I can tell, Soylent is about half the price of Shakeology so about $2.69 per bottle if you go with the bottled version or $1.54 per meal if you get the powdered version (of course that means also getting the pitcher and scoop but that's only an extra $20 the first time). I got mine for free but when I looked at prices back then it would have cost about $250 per month to replace every single meal with Soylent. Now you could buy 105 meals (17 bags of Soylent) for $162 if you subscribe to get it monthly. Also, if you do buy it, get it from Soylent's website, not from Amazon because Amazon charges $32 for 3 bottles so it's definitely not worth it long term. Maybe only if you want to try one rather than buy 12 from Soylent's website.

I legitimately contemplated replacing every meal with Soylent because it was healthier than eating peanut butter and honey sandwiches for 2 meals every day and I hate taking time to make food but on that diet I was only spending about $100 on groceries each month so I couldn't justify the cost. But now I'm contemplating it again...

Consider shaking up your protein source in your shakes. I rummaged through this article for some suggestions (I don't like how it is written, but the ideas are fine) and concluded nut butters, silken tofu, leafy greens, oatmeal (I would add dry, instant rolled oats), and seeds like chia, hemp, pumpkin, and flax. These are good sources of protein and offer a chance to experiment with your daily routine.

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